Guadalajara/Puebla tonight, H2L ticket sales, FantasticaMania Day 4, AAA in Monterrey

CMLL

CMLL (FRI) 02/16/2024 Arena México
1) Hombre Bala Jr. vs Felino Jr. [lightning]
2) Dulce Gardenia, Espíritu Negro, Rey Cometa vs Cancerbero, Luciferno, Virus
3) Flip Gordon & Star Jr. vs Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja
4) Stephanie Vaquer & Zeuxis © vs Lady Frost & Tessa Blanchard [CMLL WOMEN]
second defense
5) Adrenalina, Barboza (Jalisco), Calavera Jr. I (Jalisco), Calavera Jr. II (Jalisco), Fantástico, Persa (Jalisco) vs El Hijo De Centella Roja, El Malayo, El Novato (Puebla), Rayo Metálico (Guanajuato), Rey Apocalipsis, Xelhua

There’s actual some history for the Guadalajara and Puebla teams: Rey Apocalipsis, Malayo and Siki Osama beat Adrenalina, Fantastico and Explosivo for the Occdiente Trios titles back on 12/29. Guadalajara won the entire thing last year and seem likely to make the final this year, though there’s a lot of people who haven’t been in a big matches on that team. The Puebla guys have struggled to stand out on their own shows; Apocalipsis is a good character but I don’t know about the rest of these teams.

Lady Frost missed some media obligations with what was said to be “stomach discomfort“, but presumably will be ready to go tonight. Those four are going to want to have a memorable match. A title change seems unlikely. The rest of the show are matches that could be good if they want to be and should be at least OK. This will stream live for 25 USD members, and will go up on 02/25 for 9 USD members.

Almost 4,000 tickets were sold in the lower bowl for 03/29 Homenaje a Dos Leyendas in the 24 hours after the card was announced. A in-person ticket buyer today was told the lower bowl is sold out. There’s scattered seats still visible on Ticketmaster, but those may be gone tonight. There’s a good chance this sells out in the next few days.

Some of that ticket moving is reminding people H2L was on sale – CMLL usually waits until they have a big main event before doing so, but they went up quietly a couple of weeks ago with not much info. A lot of that movement is clearly that BCC vs CMLL match. I know some people wanted other things, but those buying tickets sure seem happy enough with what they’ve got. I always thought this show would sell out, but I didn’t think it would be this quick.

That speed of ticket selling makes me rethink a lot. I keep expecting the BCC to do a run-in to set up the match; the match is now set up, and it seems like burning money to have those guys show up without being advertised. CMLL’s got to be interested in doing more with AEW wrestlers if they’re available, and might give them more freedom to do what they want if it helps keep them around. Money changes everything and this situation looks to be money.

The one sure thing is the scalpers are going to make a killing on this one. Prices for tickets were essentially the same as last year, and demand is clearly much higher.

Worth noting: CMLL’s press release hyping Homenaje a Dos Leyendas pushed the four way mask match as the biggest match on the card.

CMLL (TUE) 02/20/2024 Arena Coliseo Guadalajara
1) Avispón Negro Jr., Lince Del Bajio, Último Ángel vs Atilius, Maximus, Rey Urano
2) Arlequín & Garrabato vs Guerrero de la Muerte & Shezmu and Cowboy & Omar Brunetti and Abigor La Pesadilla & Cris Skin and Bestia Negra & Rav and Johnny Dinamo & Prince Drago and Adrenalina & Obek and Amenaza Negra Jr. & Minotauro and Demonio Maya & Mandala and Leo & Temerario and Canalla & Principe Daniel and Fantástico & Halcón de Plata [Gran Alterantiva Tapatia]
13) Cris Skin, Gallero, Halcón Negro Jr. vs Azteca Warrior, Desafio, Gato Fantasma
14) Dark Silueta vs Estrellita Mágica [lightning]
15) Barboza, Draego, Persa, Satánico vs El Coyote, Felino, Felino Jr., Pólvora
16) Lady Amazona, Sexy Sol, Skadi vs Hera, Metálica, Olympia

I have no idea how that tournament is going to work, only that they’re advertising a final on this show after talking about doing a league format before. Maybe instead of two groups of six, it’ll somehow be six way matches? That is one of the weakest main events; I’m not entirely sure why it’s the main event over the semi-main (which isn’t great either.)

CMLL/FantasticaMania

CMLL, NJPW (FRI) 02/16/2024 Nagoya Congress Center Event Hall, Nagoya, Japan [NJPW]
Attendance: 1150
1) SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru b Difunto & Tiger Mask
7:12. Kanemaru unmasked Tiger Mask, and Sho rolled him up for the win.
2) Dark Panther & Súper Kokeshi Machine b Francesco Akira & Okumura
7:35. Tomoaki Honma (as Super Kokeshi Machine) replaced Satoshi Kojima on 02/08 (knee injury). Panther pinned Okumura
3) Kamaitachi & Tetsuya Naito b Brillante Jr. & El Desperado
9:30. Kamaitachi pinned Brillante.
4) Atlantis Jr., Hiroshi Tanahashi, YOH b Hechicero, Musashi, Ryusuke Taguchi [Relevos Increíbles]
12:58. Yoh beat Taguchi.
5) Máscara Dorada, Místico, Templario DQ Brillante Jr., Douki, Rocky Romero [Relevos Increíbles]
15:22. Soberano unmasked Templario for a DQ.
6) Pegasso & Stigma b Magnus & Volador Jr. [Faction, semifinal]
12:00. Magnus beat Stigma.
7) Stuka Jr. & Último Guerrero b Bushi & Titán [Faction, semifinal]
12:24. Stuka beat BUSHI.

This show sounded like it didn’t go well. Mistico seemed to be working through a leg injury on night one, and it was bugging him again here. Mistico’s had some leg/knee issues in his big 2023 CMLL matches, but they didn’t seem to affect his performance at that time. Something’s gotten worse, it’s affecting him now and I wonder if that impacted the decision to have Dorada/Stuka as the main event on the final show.

There’s also an accidental problem of the NJPW guys wanting to get on the masked fun, which ends up with four different comedy characters (Kamaitachi, Taguchi, Honma and to some extent Bone Solider Jr.) running around in this early matches. A little bit of that is fine, but it downgrades the CMLL participation if the NJPW characters are the focus of these matches. Add on a DQ to build Soberano/Templario and the usual mayhem with NJPW’s House of Torture team, and it wasn’t set up to be a great show.

The tournament matches had to save it, and that didn’t work out. Volador was visibly upset that he won his match; the referee counted three when he earlier than planned and everyone noticed Volador’s reaction. (NJPW fans did get the authentic CMLL experience on that one.) The LIJ/Guerreros match sounded like it was fine but not enough to go out of your way to see.

Attendance after four shows:

2023
Kagawa 768
Kyoto 765
Osaka 962
Chiba 1092

2024
Osaka 963
Osaka 831
Kagawa 741
Nagoya 1150

Slightly up, but about the same. This year’s tour is one show longer; they’ll be in Chiba tonight for the end of the tag team tournament, followed by the two Korakuen Hall shows early Sunday and Monday morning Mexico City time.

AAA

AAA on Space airs the two women’s semifinals from Rey de Reyes. They’ll probably have to fill time with something else – maybe there were other AAA/military interactions.

AAA in real life will run a TV taping at the Showcenter

AAA TV (SUN) 02/18/2024 Showcenter Complex, San Pedro Garza García, Nuevo Leon
1) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
2) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
3) ?, ??, ??? vs ????, ?????, ??????
4) Drago vs Taurus, Mr. Iguana, Epydemius
5) Flammer, La Hiedra, Maravilla vs Dulce Kanela, Lady Shani, Sexy Star
6) Laredo Kid © vs Antifaz del Norte [Showcenter Championship]
7) El Patrón Alberto & Hijo Del Vikingo vs Chessman & Mecha Wolf

things to note here

• Alberto is inevitably going to challenge Vikingo again
• Laredo and Antifaz should make mask match challenges again
• there’s probably a new Taurus in the fourth (and you can tell it’s not an important one given where he’s positioned.

AAA previously said they’d have a press conference to announce some matches for that show sometime after this show.

The WON has a news bit Pentagon Jr. worked the Jericho Cruise, hung around two more days to work Dynamite, and then was unhappy to find out he was not working Dynamite or Rampage because CMLL wrestlers were working. He (and Vikingo) did work a Ring of Honor match as part of that taping. The issue here is Penta seems upset he hung around in the US a couple of extra days just to work a Ring of Honor show. It gets extrapolated into AEW betraying a founding member of AEW by picking CMLL over them and that the Lucha Brothers will now be kept off PPVs and TV shows out of deference to other people.

There were eight PPVs in 2023 AEW. Pentagon Jr. appeared on three of them (and all in matches with a lot of people.) One of the PPV skips may have been CMLL related – Forbidden Door – but Penta had the other four off all by AEW decision. I would like to see Penta on more PPVs myself, but the decision to put him or Fenix on PPV seems more related to AEW creative decisions than CMLL deals. The travel/logistics thing is a problem – there’s no reason to keep Penta around just do that match – and is a frequently cited problem with AEW. (It’s evident even on AEW’s  podcasts, where the hosts are told stories by wrestlers about how last minute they were told about an idea or even their debut, and the hosts agree that’s just how AEW works.)

The WON report states policy is “non-CMLL Mexicans” can’t work the same shows as CMLL wrestlers. Komander wrestled Wardlow on the same show as the CMLL wrestlers debuted, so there’s already some pushing at the margins of that idea. I think “Mexicans” is oversimplification, brought on because no one outside of Arena Mexico is quite sure who CMLL would object too. Rush & Dralistico are a sure objections, because both walked out on CMLL. (Dralistico’s spent this AEW/CMLL run posting positive things about the relationship, while Rush is trying to get attention with teases of big stories on Twitter.) On the other side of the spectrum, Thunder Rosa is a Mexican and CMLL clearly doesn’t have any issue with her; they let her come backstage to an interview with Stephanie Vaquer last year. I have no idea what CMLL feels about Bandido nowadays, or how they’ll feel about not-Black Taurus when he debuts and has all ties broken with AAA.

The other part of this story is I don’t think CMLL on AEW is going to be a regular thing by any means. I think they did it a lot at first to get the angle going, but it may not be as frequent going forward. The BCC seems to be going in a different direction for AEW’s PPV. CMLL wrestlers may end up on that show, but it’s far from a sure thing for a variety of reasons. If Penta & Fenix aren’t PPVs in 2024, it’ll more likely due to whatever decisions AEW makes than their CMLL partnership. And that’s a fair thing to be annoyed with; it’s hard for those guys to make these shows already and now they’ve got another obstacle. But the Lucha Brothers problem would still be there if CMLL wasn’t.

I believe AEW would eventually like to remove any restriction about CMLL and AAA wrestlers on the same show. I don’t think you’re ever going to see AAA/CMLL matches in AEW, but I think it’s a long term possible goal just to have some AAA wrestlers in one segment and CMLL wrestlers in another.

The source for the Penta/AEW/CMLL story is left uncredited; it does not appear to be Penta itself. It makes the entire story read differently if it is indeed the booker for AAA arguing that AEW needs to stop using CMLL guys, which is a problem with anonymous sourcing. Konnan may not have done is purely for AAA/CMLL reasons – Penta is his guy, he’s sticking up for him – but it’s part of the story if it is him. In the past, whenever a story like this crops up in the WON, Konnan says the same story using many of the same words on his (previously recorded) podcast in the next few days. I guess we’ll know if that sequence happens again.

The WON had no further details on the Luchatitlan closure beyond which was already reported here.

Big Lucha

Big Lucha World (FRI) 02/16/2024 Arena Big Lucha, Iztapalapa, Distrito Federal
1) Rey Espartano & Zenky vs Rey Halcón & Skayler
2) Reiyel vs M2R, Bogdan Klimov
3) Morfosis vs Helios, Cósmico
4) Brujo, Limbo, Torito Negro vs Atómico Jr., Auzter, Black Skayde
5) El Potro de Oro vs Jack Evans

Last week’s show set up a three way for a #1 contenders spot with Flamita. No Flamita. Not sure if that match is happening at another time or what.

Klimov is a Russian pro wrestler who is teasing cross training at the gym. That probably doesn’t turn out well for wrestling.

Other News

The state of Quintana Roo will celebrate the state day of lucha libre and luchadors on September 21st, starting this year. This idea, following Mexico City doing the same last decade, was first proposed last July. It doesn’t mean much on the government’s part, but it’s always been an odd state to go second. There’s not that much lucha libre in Quintana Roo, even putting aside the Lucahtitlan failure. There is Total Wrestling Stars that runs in Cancun, and other promotions around that area that run maybe once a month. Perhaps the Quintana Roo legislatures believe Mexico City’s declaration helped Mexico City’s lucha scene and would help theirs as well.

There’s a benefit show for Blue Win next Sunday.

Riot announced Arez, Toxin and Latigo vs Aramis, Iron Kid, Demonio del Aire on March 2nd.

IWRG says they’re going to start airing their Tryout show on Monday.

Cinta de Oro was part of a lucha libre parade at a children’s hospital in El Paso.